An Elmira City Court judge has decided to leave the bench in response to a long list of ethical transgressions detailed by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, including allowing his daughter to be empaneled on a jury hearing a case in his courtroom and telling a sexually insulting joke about a fellow judge at a dinner held by the Elmira Police Benevolent Association.

Ramich, who was served with a complaint a year ago faced allegations that included the judge's use of part-time court attorney Frederick Cerio as his personal dogsbody. Cerio was ordered to handle tasks ranging from representing the judge's relatives and girlfriend when they faced traffic tickets to running to Federal Express to pick up a gift for Ramich's daughter.

In the transcript of a three-day hearing that was attached to the stipulation, Cerio testified that he performed each extracurricular job without pay in order to stay in the judge's good graces.

During the same hearing, Elmira City Court Judge Steven Forrest described the scene at the April 2009 Elmira PBA dinner in which Ramich — annoyed by what he saw as the slow pace of work in his fellow judge's chambers — told an elaborate joke involving aliens and references to local political figures that ended in a punch line insulting the size of Forrest's genitalia, a gag neither Forrest nor the rest of the audience found especially funny, according to witnesses.

The complaint also alleges that Ramich required two dozen defendants to donate to local charities as a condition of resolving their cases, and had discussions with his daughter about the case on which she served as a juror between the verdict and sentencing. "Looking back now, I made mistakes," Ramich said at the hearing.

In a separate decision, the commission announced the resignation of John S.R. Bartlett, a Lebanon Town Court justice accused of failing to make timely reports to the state Comptroller about collection of fines and penalties. Bartlett resigned rather than face a hearing.